During today’s Triple-i Initiative stream, we finally learned the release date of The Alters. The anticipated next game from 11 Bit Studios, the developer behind This War of Mine and the Frostpunk series, arrives on June 13.
In The Alters, you assume the role of Jan Dolski, a man on a mission to a planet rich in a valuable element. Unfortunately, his entire team is killed on the approach to the planet, so he must complete the mission in this hostile world alone. Rife with radiation storms, the planet requires Jan to collect the necessary resources during the day before retreating to a wheel-shaped mobile base to upgrade his equipment while waiting out the overnight storm. Unfortunately, one of the planet’s suns scorches everything when it rises, meaning Jan needs to get the base operational before that sun turns the corner and lights him and his base ablaze.
While inside the base, the action/survival mechanics give way to a base-builder. Here, you can build new modules to the base, but when things go awry and he needs help, he resorts to cloning himself using a special tool in the base. But it’s not just an exact copy of himself; instead, Jan dips into the multiverse to clone versions of him that would have resulted in making a different choice during a pivotal part of his life. How you build your team is up to you, which makes for a fascinating experiment around exploring the person you could have been and figuring out the best team composition to tackle the task at hand.
In 2024, I flew to Warsaw, Poland, to get our hands on The Alters. I came away impressed with the premise of the game and the execution based on the three hours I played. I will certainly be looking forward to playing The Alters when it launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on June 13. To read our extended hands-on preview, head here.
